Queen’s very public show of support for Andrew
THE Queen drew a line under one controversy and then walked into another yesterday by giving a public gesture of support to Prince Andrew.
Well-wishers waiting to catch a glimpse of the 93-year-old monarch watched as her scandal-hit second son arrived with her at St Mary the Virgin church in Hillington, Norfolk.
Andrew, 59, who was on a shooting weekend at Sandringham, went to the morning service just hours after the Queen’s historic statement about the future of Prince Harry and Meghan.
It was Andrew’s first appearance in front of a crowd since his car crash TV interview last November when he talked about his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
He fiercely denied in the interview that he had sex with Epstein’s “sex slave” Virginia Roberts when she was just 17 in 2001.
But a public backlash over his lack of remorse led to him standing down “for the foreseeable future” from official duties just three days later.
Yesterday he and the Queen were driven to the service around three miles from Sandringham House in her maroon Bentley. Andrew appeared apprehensive as he stepped first from the car, and waited for the Queen – wearing a stylish grey and white dogtooth checked coat and a matching grey hat – to emerge.
But after the initial surprise there was no booing from a crowd of 200 people at the church who seemed supportive of him.
In sharp contrast, there was an outcry from people on social media who believe Harry and Meghan have been treated more harshly by the Royal Family than the Duke of York. Andrew had failed to join the rest of the family at church at Sandringham on Christmas Day after it was reported that aides feared he might be booed by onlookers.
Instead he stayed indoors with Prince Philip, 98, who was recovering after a four-night stay in hospital.
Andrew did, however, attend an earlier church service on Christmas morning before the public were allowed into the paddock beside St Mary Magdalene Church on the 20,000-acre royal estate.
At Hillington yesterday Andrew walked quickly up the 15-yard long church path while chatting to Sandringham’s rector, Canon Jonathan Riviere.
The sermon was given by the Right Rev Peter Eagles, the Bishop of Sodor and Man.
Heather Sayer, 59, of Welney, Norfolk, who was in the crowd, said: “Andrew had nothing to worry about because people who come to see the Queen at church are very loyal and love the Royal Family.”
Dawn Smith, 56, of Red Lodge, Suffolk, said: “It was nice that Andrew came to support his mother with there now being two big gaps in the Royal Family”.